Opening a channel of contact with someone in current telephone and instant messaging is largely based on direct input of a phone number, a name, or a username, such as by pressing or typing on buttons for individual numbers and letters or by scrolling through and selecting from a list of contacts. Such methods are often not intuitive, requiring close attention to small buttons and/or a screen that is often also small, requiring multiple operational steps, and/or requiring memorization of numbers or usernames or browsing through a sometimes very long list of potential contacts. Browsing a contact list also requires a substantial amount of dedicated screen space and intensive user attention, which may be found inconvenient and non-intuitive by many users, and which may present an undesired requirement for space and an unaesthetic presence in a household environment. Another method for opening a channel of contact is with voice recognition, which sometimes interprets voice inputs inconsistently or suffers impaired performance in noisy environments.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.